Chapter 2 Lenses for Conceptualizing Problems and Interventions: The Person in the Environment

Question 1

person-in-environment approach

Answer 1

views client problems within the environmental context in which they occur, and it is the cornerstone of social work practice

Question 2

micro-mezzo-macro approach

Answer 2

helps social workers to view people as active agents whose lives, relationships, and environments are interdependent

Question 3

micro level

Answer 3

incorporates facets of the individual such as biological, psychological, developmental, spiritual, emotional, cognitive, recreational, and financial aspects of personality and individual functioning considered vital to a person’s well-being

Question 4

mezzo level

Answer 4

consists of elements in a person’s immediate environment

Question 5

macro level

Answer 5

includes larger social forces that might affect an individual, such as governmental policy, discrimination, oppression, social policy, economic conditions, societal values, and even historical events

Question 6

Micro-mezzo-macro levels of conceptualization critiques

Answer 6

many social workers will probably not have time to fully explore the range of issues that may be impacting clients
It cannot be empirically tested
interventions based on this approach can vary a great deal
this approach does not have a consistent set of constructs that can be applied to client situations

Question 7

biopsychosocial approach

Answer 7

breaks down human behavior into several components that involve a person’s biological, psychological, and social functioning

Question 8

biological level in the biopsychosocial approach

Answer 8

the client’s diet, health (both past and present), exercise patterns, sexual functioning, medication and substance use, and family health and genetic history - any factor that relates to the client’s biological functioning and affects the client’s well-being

Question 9

Psychological level in the biopsychosocial approach

Answer 9

The client’s self-esteem, coping skills, mental health (both past and present), personality characteristics, family history of mental illness, spiritual development, and cognitive and emotional development

Question 10

Social level in the biopsychosocial approach

Answer 10

the client’s work stability, engagement with social activities and recreation, and relationships with family, friends and co-workers

Question 11

Biopsychosocial approach critiques

Answer 11

too narrow - conceptualizing clients’ functioning from these three realms fails to acknowledge both the complexity of clients’ lives and clients’ interactions with larger social forces
the biopsychosocial approach is too problem-oriented and not sufficiently focused on people’s strengths
It views the individual having the problems as being responsible for causing them
This treatment of individuals can perpetuate an individual’s problems by ignoring larger social issues that can contribute to individual problems and make them more difficult to overcome
debate about whether social workers know enough about biological aspects of human behavior to assess various problems and to incorporate alternative interventions into their work

Question 12

Systems Theory scholars

Answer 12

Talcott Parsons, Kurt Lewin, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Question 13

Systems Theory

Answer 13

views human behavior as the result of active interactions between people and their social systems

Question 14

subsystems

Answer 14

smaller systems within a larger system

Question 15

boundaries

Answer 15

patterns of behavior that define relationships within systems and give systems their identity

Question 16

Differentiation

Answer 16

A system’s movement from a simple existence toward a more complex form of functioning, while still maintaining its unique characteristics

Question 17

Entropy

Answer 17

a system’s movement toward disorganization and death.

Question 18

Negative entropy

Answer 18

a system’s movement toward growth and development

Question 19

Equifinality

Answer 19

the tendency for the same end state or outcome in a system to be achieved through many different paths or trajectories

Question 20

Feedback

Answer 20

A form of input, which informs a system about its performance (can be positive or negative)

Question 21

Homeostasis

Answer 21

the tendency that systems have to work toward and maintain stability and equilibrium

Question 22

Input

Answer 22

the information, communication, or resources coming into a system from other systems

Question 23

Output

Answer 23

what happens to input information, communication, or resource after it has been received by a system

Question 24

Multifinality

Answer 24

the possibility that similar circumstances or conditions in a system will lead to different results or outcomes

Question 25

Reciprocity

Answer 25

the necessity for a change in one part of the system to impact other parts of the system

Question 26

Roles

Answer 26

Socially or culturally sanctioned patterns of behaviors expected of individuals within a system

Question 27

Synergy

Answer 27

the energy that systems create to maintain themselves

Question 28

system

Answer 28

set of parts that are interdependent and make up an organized whole

Question 29

Genograms

Answer 29

provide a visual representation of a family system

Question 30

Categories of info depicted in genograms

Answer 30

• Demographic information for each family member: gender; dates of birth, death, marriage, and divorce; significant health or mental health related issues such as drug or alcohol use and hereditary diseases such as cystic fibrosis
• Relationships and communication shared among family members
• Types of boundaries between family members
• Subsystems that might exist in a family system

Question 31

Ecomaps

Answer 31

similar to genograms, but they go beyond genograms by demonstrating visually how family members are affected by, and react to, their broader ecological context

Question 32

Systems Theory critiques

Answer 32

• Identifying the many systems in a client’s life and assessing how these systems interact and impact a client’s functioning is not an easy task
• this broad focus on systems as well as concepts that seem somewhat abstract can make the theory difficult to articulate and test empirically, especially when attempting to predict behavior
• some social workers also argue that this theory is too problem-oriented, ignoring positive areas of functioning in clients’ lives
• the focus on family and other systems in this theory makes it less likely that social workers will attend to individual biological aspects that could be contributing clients’ problems
• social workers may overlook important information about past functioning that could be relevant to current problems

Question 33

Ecological theory

Answer 33

explains human development by describing aspects of the individual, the environment, and the interaction between the two

Question 34

Fundamental tenet of ecological theory

Answer 34

the way people perceive their environments and experiences significantly affects their well-being

Question 35

Microsystem

Answer 35

consists of all the roles and relationships that a person has in the immediate environment

Question 36

Mesosystem

Answer 36

the interactions among two or more environmental settings in which people live

Question 37

Exosystem

Answer 37

all those social settings in which things happen that affect people (child’s school, parent’s workplace, neighborhood community center)

Question 38

Macrosystem

Answer 38

encompasses all the ways in which larger cultural factors affect the other levels of a person’s environment and, consequently, how they affect a person’s development

Question 39

Adaptation

Answer 39

the ability of individuals to adjust to their environments

Question 40

Coping

Answer 40

The ways in which individuals deal with negative events and situations

Question 41

Energy

Answer 41

The active engagement of people with their environments. Can take the form of input or output

Question 42

Interdependence

Answer 42

the reciprocal and mutually reliant relationships that people have with one another and with their environments

Question 43

Social Environment

Answer 43

the conditions, circumstances, and human interactions that encompass human beings

Question 44

Transactions

Answer 44

communication, interactions, or exchanges that occur between people and their environments. Can be positive or negative

Question 45

Ecological Theory critiques

Answer 45

• There are, potentially, an endless number of areas in each level that could be assessed, which can seem overwhelming
• The broad scope of the theory makes it difficult to test empirically and to use to predict behavior
• Ecological theory does not pay enough attention to biological aspects of clients

Question 46

Ways to combine ecological and systems theories

Answer 46

• Both theories look at the interactions and interdependence between person and environment
• Both view these interactions and relationships as dynamic, changing processes
• Both focus on systems and how these systems maintain themselves, influence other systems, and work together to function as a whole system

Question 47

Strengths perspective

Answer 47

based on the assumption that all human beings have the capacity for growth, change, and adaptation

Question 48

Empowerment

Answer 48

the social worker is arming clients with information that they can add to their set of skills

Question 49

Strengths perspective critiques

Answer 49

• the tenets of the perspective can be linked with values of individual responsibility and personal autonomy
• a focus on the individual is criticized for promoting the idea that self-esteem in and of itself can promote well-being and solve social problems
• may undermine the legitimacy of established empirical evidence pointing to biological and related causes for individual issues
• assumes that communities and other resources on which people may draw for resources are inherently good
• many social work agencies may not be amenable to using only this approach
• different social workers define the meaning of strengths very differently
  Social workers who want to use the strengths perspective may not be taken seriously by other professionals

Question 50

Intersectionality

Answer 50

a way to help explain the oppression of African-American women

Question 51

Intersectionality Theory critiques

Answer 51

• no testable, concrete constructs exist to help practitioners apply and evaluate the theory in practice
• the theory in its current form is relatively new, and it is constantly changing as it is applies in different disciplines to a wide range of individual and social problems